HERMON – Even after hitting two cars Friday evening, a motorist continued his high-speed run that began in Bangor and ended more than two miles away in Hermon when he crashed into a third car.

A witness estimated that the car driven by Andrew Smith, 31, of Glenburn reached speeds of 70-80 mph, twice the speed limit as it headed out Union Street from Griffin Road Friday evening, authorities said.

Smith, whose license was conditional because of a previous drunken driving conviction, was charged Friday with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, said Deputy Jay Hallett, a Hermon deputy with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department. The Bangor Police Department also planned to charge him in connection with the incident.

Headed toward Hermon but still in Bangor, Smith struck the back of one car and then swerved into the oncoming lane and sideswiped a second vehicle, Bangor police Officer Chris Desmond said.

Once over the Hermon town line, Smith’s car struck a third car that was turning right into a driveway.

Dodie Bezio, 32, of Bangor was driving the third car and said she saw Smith’s car traveling fast well behind her. She slowed as she prepared to turn into her friend’s driveway and then suddenly was hit from behind.

“I didn’t have any time to do anything,” Bezio said. She and her husband were in the car and weren’t hurt.

A motorist who later identified himself as a police officer from Phoenix, Ariz., helped Smith out of the car, made sure he was OK and had him sit on the grass near the roadside, witnesses said. Bezio said she heard Smith admit at one point that he had been drinking but denied that he had been under the influence of anything else.

“‘I ain’t done nothin’ but vodka,'” Bezio recalled the motorist saying.

Hallett said he found a 12-pack of beer in Smith’s car with four beers left. A more thorough search of the car was expected to be done later.

Traffic along that stretch of Union Street was reduced to one lane.