Three Canadians and a Jamaican family member were killed in a car crash in Jamaica on Wednesday while rushing their ailing child to hospital, according to local police.

The Jamaica Observer newspaper reports that Canadians Garieno Dixon, 27, and his wife Diane Dixon, 32, were rushing to hospital after their two-year-old son Ronaldinho stopped breathing early Wednesday morning.

Marie Myrie-Smith, Dixon's Jamaican mother, was also in the Toyota Corolla when it crashed en route to a hospital in St. Catherine, a parish in southeastern Jamaica.

Relatives in Brampton, Ont., where the family lived, say they are in disbelief.

"It still hasn't fully soaked in," Alex Providence told CTV Toronto. "It hurts very badly."

Jamaican police said that the family's Toyota Corolla collided head-on with a truck as they passed along a busy roadway. They were taken to hospital and later died, according to news reports.

Kirk Abraham, a reporter with RJR Radio in Jamaica, told CTV News Channel that the violent crash left the coastal road a mess of debris following the collision.

"The crash was very horrendous. If you had seen the car – the car was a mangled wreck. There was no way for anybody to survive that car," Kirk Abraham of RJR Radio told CTV News Channel.

The driver of the truck was not injured and spoke to Abraham in the wake of the accident, telling him he was left devastated.

"He said he could do nothing. There was a car racing toward him and said there was nothing he could to do," Abraham said.

Garieno was a construction worker and Diane was an administrative assistant. The two had been married for four years. They leave behind two daughters, a 14-year-old and a six-year-old.

The family was booked to return to Canada on Jan. 15.

A spokesperson for Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy offered consolation on the deaths.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to family and friends of those killed in this tragic accident," he said. "Canadian officials in Jamaica and Ottawa are providing consular assistance to the family during this difficult time."

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Toronto's Michelle Dube