In just a split second, the life of Maine State Police Recruit Shane St. Pierre — and the lives of three fellow troopers — changed forever.

It was just after 11 p.m. Aug. 27 when a car plowed into St. Pierre and Troopers Jake Mowry, David Lemieux and Dakota Stewart as they investigated a report of domestic violence.

“I was able to see the vehicle come in and veer towards us and look pretty well straight down the hood,” St. Pierre said Thursday. “Then I remember the impact and flying through the air and landing in the ditch.”

He suffered a broken tibia and fibula, requiring surgery to put a rod in place from his knee to his ankle.

Mowry — who suffered a compound fracture in his leg — remembers little.

“The car came through traffic,” Mowry said. “I woke up in the woods. I was unconscious for a while.”

The troopers spoke to reporters at a state police barracks in Gray, giving an update on their recovery and their commitment to get back in their cruisers as soon as possible.

For Stewart, who said his primary concern after the impact was locating his fellow troopers, it took a while to realize that his foot was broken in several places.

“One second everything was fine, it was just a typical investigation that we were doing and within a second, nothing was fine,” he said.

Police say Tyler Croston, 24, of Westbrook, was driving the vehicle. He is facing several charges, including aggravated operating under the influence, aggravated driving to endanger and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, according to court documents.

A judge set his bail at $250,000 and he did not enter a plea at his initial court appearance in August, according to the Portland Press Herald. He’ll be back in court in mid-December.

The day after the crash, Maine State Police Col. William Ross said there were three cruisers parked at the scene, but none of them were hit in the incident. The cruisers had their blue lights on and the accident occurred on a straight portion of Route 202.

“The best way to describe it is like threading a needle,” he said to explain how the vehicle avoided hitting any of the cruisers. “To try and do it would be a difficult thing to do.”

Ross said all four troopers were “in significant distress at the scene.”

As they sat side-by-side in a conference room Thursday, the troopers said they had not yet watched the dashcam video that showed the vehicle crashing into them.

“I’m sure I’ll watch it someday, but it’s a pretty tough one to watch,” said Lemieux, whose ankle was broken in three places. “The dashcams were pointing right at the whole thing.”

Lemieux and others described months of physical therapy and appointments with doctors. They are all out on workers compensation, which does not provide a full paycheck.

Not one of them hesitated when asked if they were ready to get back to work. And all said they felt blessed by the support they received.

“This department is like a huge family,” Mowry said. “Hundreds of troopers were at the hospital the whole time we were there.”

Mowry had recently taken the job with state police after working in Rhode Island. His new wife’s first visit to Maine was to the hospital to visit him.

“We were buying our house,” he said. “We ended up closing on it three days later while I was still in the hospital.”

Like the others, Mowry’s got rods, plates and screws in his leg now and continues with physical therapy.

The men praised their law enforcement family, the public and strangers from as far away as Oregon who have sent cards and gifts to help with their recovery.

“Really just the support has been amazing,” Mowry said. “It’s also a good reminder that most of the public is pretty supportive of us. It’s easy to get sucked into thinking that everybody out there is against the police. But this hasn’t showed that at all. It’s humbling.”

To help the troopers pay for expenses they face following the accident, the Trooper Black Foundation, a nonprofit in Cape Neddick, is holding a charity concert at 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

For more information, go to crossarenaportland.com.