University of Wyoming professor dies in motorcycle crash on I-15

An assistant professor at the University of Wyoming died in a motorcycle crash during a hailstorm in Nevada.

The Nevada Highway Patrol says 52-year-old Gustavo Sbatella of Powell, Wyoming, died Wednesday evening in a crash on Interstate 15 near Moapa, northeast of Las Vegas.

The patrol says Sbatella was southbound in a rain and hailstorm at about 7 p.m. when he hit the brakes and the bike went into the rocky median. Sbatella was thrown from the motorcycle and died at the scene.

Alex Sbatella tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal his father was traveling to an academic conference in California.

University of Wyoming spokesman Chad Baldwin said Sbatella was an assistant professor of irrigated crop and weed management at the Powell Research and Extension Center.