We now know more about the man killed in a crash on I-90 near Hartford on Thanksgiving night. Michael "Mickey" Merrigan of Canistota was an EMT for at least 30 years, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol says he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

Those who worked with Mickey Merrigan say the hardest part is knowing he wasn't buckled up. Especially because, as an EMT, he always made sure to wear his seatbelt.

"It surprised me to hear that he didn't have it on," said Scott Christensen, an EMT with Rural Metro.

Christensen worked alongside Mickey Merrigan for seven years at rural metro, but Merrigan also served several years as a district president for the South Dakota EMT Association and as a volunteer firefighter, which made the scene Thursday night tough for nearly all the first responders to handle.

"You get used to helping other people because that's your job and when it's someone you know it's tough to deal with," Christensen said. "Because you're not prepared to deal with the emotional connection you have with people you know."

Christensen says the biggest shock is that Merrigan wasn't buckled up. EMT's are required to wear seatbelts on the job, and he never knew his friend to forget something so essential.

"He spent a great deal of his life caring for other people and being a role model for people," Christensen said. "And this is one situation where a lesson can be learned that seatbelts do make a difference. And it probably might have, we can't say for sure, but it probably might have made a difference."

Mickey Merrigan's wife was a passenger in the crash. She was wearing a seatbelt, and flown to a Sioux Falls hospital with minor injuries Thursday night. Friends say she was released Friday.