The quote is from a National Weather Service scientist providing insight to the public on road conditions.  As such, citing a random colleague's perspective - with no indication of whether that colleague has driven the road 100, 1,000, or 10,000 times - is careless and a poor substitute for objective information.  And in this case, having seen the conditions today myself, I'd say the colleague was a little inexperienced.

You're welcome to feel it's a fine way to report conditions to the public. I simply disagree.