Did the wings seize, too?
Too often the ballistic parachute is used as an excuse for poor judgement. Whether that poor judgement is flying too low or doing something else, that doesn't change the issue of poor judgement.
I've spent a lot of my flying life at low altitude, but have never been in a position where I was too low to make a forced landing off field (I've done that before, following an engine failure at low altitude...crop duster by trade).
Generally the higher the better when it comes to a parachute deployment. If one is too low to glide, one is usually too low to be thinking about using a parachute.