I might be going a bit sideways on this post, but oh well.

One of the first points about survival situations is to avoid them.
I think the whole point of being prepared is to prevent a relatively small emergency from becoming a life threatening situation.
The more dangerous it is the more you need to do to reduce the risks.

Apparently something went seriously wrong with the risk assessment and the responses to it in her case.

I noted earlier that a lot of people place to much faith in their vehicles.
I do not care what a piece of machinery is. Skidoo. plane, jeep or train. I am not willing to bet my life on it working or not if I can help it.

What she should have done after the fact is moot.

I can not fault her for being able to change a tire but leaving the flat behind. I can't even fault her getting stuck and being unable to get unstuck.
She likely did the best she could with what she had.

It is what she should have done before she started her death ride across the burning sands that might have made a difference.

Her losing her son was a tragedy and it was 100% preventable.

I do not think it helps to blame, but I do think it might help prevent others from making the same dumb mistakes if it is mentioned.

I can fault her for:
not leaving travel plans, contact points
not making sure she had good communications
not having a good map,not having effective navigationaids
not having enough enough water to last until help arrived.

I can fault her for not having something to dig or pull her jeep out when it got stuck and for going to far from a safe return point to get home if her vehicle failed her...

There are a lot of things I could find fault with.

There are a lot of things many of us would have done differently before even turning the ignition key on that trip, just out of habit.

I would like to hear more about what could have been done by her to avoid her situation before it became a desperate tragedy.