I think the stuck rental car fatalities and the desert hiking fatalities were two separate incidents.

"With little water for the family-of-three, the parents decided to give their young son two sips of water for each of their one, this would end up saving the child’s life as the two adults perished from heat-related causes in the desert sun.

KVIA reports that David and Ornella Steiner were hiking in the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico with their 9-year-old son Enzo in mid-day heat when Ornella fell down a dune and hurt her leg. Otero County Sheriff Benny House says that it appears the father and son left the marked trail to find help for the injured woman, leaving her behind to wait for help to arrive."

I cannot reconcile my own habit of taking long, difficult, or off-trail backpacking trips alone with the standard advice of "never go alone." But it appears the French family also broke two other pieces of the standard canon of backcountry advice in leaving an injured person alone and in leaving the trail to seek help, a.k.a., the deadly shortcut. However, I presume that impaired cognition due to hyperthermia and dehydration was the major causative factor.

Not that any of us wise and prepared types would ever allow ourselves to be put in such a situation , but lets pretend. Assuming your brain was still in gear, what would be the best course of action if conditions were extreme, your spouse was injured, water was minimal, and you knew the marked trail led to help, at most, about 2 1/2 miles away?

1. Leave the child and the injured spouse with the remaining water and go for help?

2. Take the child and the water and go for help?

3. Leave the child, take the water and go for help?

4. Ration the water until sundown, then go for help?

5. Stay together and try to assist the injured spouse to hike out?

6. Something else?