A Canadian couple were rushing their toddler to hospital in Jamaica when their car collided with an oncoming truck, killing all three and another relative, police say.

Local authorities said that at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Garina and Diane Dixon and two-year-old Nekeil were driving from Willowdene to Spanish Town on the Caribbean island nation when their Toyota Corolla collided with a truck.

Another woman believed to be the child’s grandmother, Myrie Phillips, 45, was also in the car. All four were taken to hospital and later died, officials say.

Garina Dixon, 27, Diane Dixon, 32, and two-year-old Nekeil Dixon, all from Canada, died in the crash, police say. Their grandmother Myrie Phillips, 45, was also killed in the collision.

According to a report in the Jamaica Gleaner, Garina Dixon was driving along the old harbour main road to get Nekeil, who had stopped breathing, to the Spanish Town Hospital . The father tried to overtake traffic, and the car was hit by a truck travelling in the opposite direction, police say.

Family members said the child had developed breathing complications while at home and was being taken to the Spanish Town Hospital for treatment.

“The father, in a desperate bid to save the child, jumped into his Toyota motor car with his wife and mother and rushed out to reach the hospital, unaware that the trip would be their last,” a grieving family said after the crash.

One family member said the victims had to be cut from the crumpled vehicle.

The news of the deaths was especially hard for Myrie-Phillips’s husband, Gerald, who had reached home just a few minutes after the family left for the hospital.

“Upon reaching home, he saw that his wife left her phone and was rushing to bring the instrument to her when he saw the mangled wreck and later learnt that his family members were victims of the crash,” said a family friend, who disclosed that he has since been admitted to hospital after suffering from a nervous breakdown.

Philip Chamberlain, a long-time friend of Garina, said that it was only Tuesday that he assisted a group of people who were involved in an accident.

“He did not know the victims in the accident, but that was just the type of people they were, always loving and caring,” said Chamberlain.