The carnage that confronted Nansemond River High School students Thursday may not have been real, but it was certainly realistic.

A carload of teens had apparently collided head-on with a van. A Dominion Virginia Power crane was in the process of hoisting a power pole off the vehicles.

The blood running down the door of the sedan may have been fake and the teens inside only playing dead or critically injured, but the real scene is replayed across America with alarming frequency.

Accounting for 35 percent of all deaths, motor vehicle crashes are the single largest killer of teens.

Nansemond River’s third annual mock DUI event was designed to drive home the message that cars and drinking, as well as driving and texting, don’t mix.

“It’s very important to learn about the realistic dangers of drinking and driving,” said Derik Adams, a senior who witnessed the drama. “I think it’s very important that everybody should gain some lesson from it.”

The mock wreck was painstakingly arranged to appear as real as possible, said Renee Parker, an advisor with Crimestoppers, the program’s organizer.

“We want to make sure they are safe and they’re not going to drink and drive — to give them an idea of what can happen,” she said.

First-responders from Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue, one of several program sponsors, extracted the student actors from the vehicles with the Jaws of Life, wheeling them away on gurneys.

Nightingale, which landed next to the school, flew out one “injured” teen, and another left in a Crocker Funeral Home hearse.

Police Chief Thomas Bennett, Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson and Sheriff Raleigh Isaacs addressed the students on how the authorities deal with drunken drivers.

“We see this every year, usually this time” — graduation and prom time — said Bennett, who explained how police catch suspected drunken drivers and gather evidence to convict them.

“If you have a DUI on your record, you may not be able to get a job,” he said of the consequences of getting caught.

Ferguson laid out for the juniors and seniors the penalties for driving drunk, including up to a year in jail, and a mandatory minimum $250 fine, an ignition interlock device and an education program, for first offenders.

A fourth offense within 10 years carries a mandatory minimum one year of incarceration, Ferguson said, and the various DUI-related crimes can increase prison time substantially — by up to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter, for instance.

“You are all under age and shouldn’t be drinking anything, period, but if for any reason you do, don’t get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, and don’t allow any of your friends to do it either,” he told the students.

Isaacs schooled the teens on what to expect if they do have to show up at court for a DUI charge.

It can be an expensive exercise, he said, reaching toward $10,000 for a defense attorney, fines and other costs.

“Take a taxi home if you have had anything to drink, and laugh all the way home, because nobody can get you if you are in the backseat of a taxi,” he said.

Students also signed a pledge not to drink and drive.