re: Tow hitch breaks off during stuck-truck recovery, kills driver.

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probably 20 bags of quikrete,

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Explain this to me please.

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Maybe you weren't being facetious on your question, so here's another reply"
Stuck in that kind of deal, unless you've got plenty of money to spend rebuilding your rig. Get it up 1 wheel at a time.
Use the compressed air shot through a piece of conduit, under the corners where you are trying to lift. That's to break the vacuum.
As it comes up, pour quikrete in the gap under that tire. You're just trying to add substance to the soup. It works good for that, and it works faster than you might think.

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From the pictures on the front page, looks like the steel failed due to high torque/torsion. Chevron marks on the outside indicate failure started on the outside moving inward. The material also shows no ductility indicating brittle fracture.

This guy died because someone tried to tow him out with a drop hitch made from cheap, weak steal. The combined stress from a bend and stretch load overloaded the steel and instantaneously fractured brittle.

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This incident doesn't appear to be related to a metallurgy or manufacturing defect. They were using equipment improperly at probably 5x its rated capacity in a loading direction it wasn't designed for.

That's the point in the video I posted. A stuck 1 ton truck represents a very large amount of resistance that exceeds the rating of almost any tow ball drop hitch.

Use a drop ball hitch to pull trailers.

Use a pintle hook, pulling eye, or other hookup point that is rated for the forces for recovery.

Damn a simple wet towel or t-shirt laid on top of the hook to the strap would have stopped it from popping back like that. Simple off-roading stuff and the guy is still here right now.