The Attorney General is to review the sentence of a driver who killed another motorist on the A40 while using her mobile phone at the wheel.

Philippa Curtis, 21, right, of The Street, Icklingham, Suffolk, was jailed for 21 months after she hit the back of a stationary car at 70mph on the A40 near Wheatley, killing Victoria McBryde.

Now the Attorney General’s office has asked the Crown Prosecution Service to provide the papers in Curtis’s case to consider whether the sentence should be referred to the Court of Appeal for being ‘unduly lenient’.

Curtis was convicted of causing the death of Miss McBryde, 24, of Horton, Northamptonshire, following a trial at Oxford Crown Court in December, and sentenced to 21 months by Judge Julian Hall on Monday, February 2.

Miss McBryde had stopped to deal with a burst tyre and was sitting in her car waiting for assistance when Curtis crashed into her car. She died from brain injuries.

During the journey, on November 20, 2007, Curtis, who was also banned from driving for three years, had sent and received more than 20 text messages.

A spokesman for RoSPA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “We cannot comment on any cases where the legal process is ongoing, but we felt at the time that it was a light sentence and we would take this opportunity to urge people to turn their phones off before driving.”