Who doesn’t remember the late 90s and early 2000s with NSYNC all over the radio? The band had tremendous success, and to this day, millennials are still singing along to their favorite hits. Whether you like their music or not, you most likely remember “Bye Bye Bye” being played just about everywhere. One of the main members of NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, recently settled with the Sag Harbor Village Police to have a redacted version of his body cam footage released from his DWI arrest in June 2024. He wanted to prevent the footage from being released, because he felt it would be a violation of his privacy. Being that he is a celebrity, Justin was concerned that it would affect and damage his reputation and image. This footage, (available to view online), shows that celebrities are people too – they just have special talents along with being famous. They make mistakes, and don’t always make the right decisions. In this case, it was certainly wrong for Justin to drive while intoxicated.
Timberlake was arrested on June 18th 2024, and was initially charged with one count of driving while intoxicated, along with two citations. The citations were for running a stop sign and not driving in the lane. The redacted video, which is available to view online, includes Timberlake telling the police offer that he is in fact Justin Timberlake. Timberlake appeared calm and mellow and was not violent or aggressive.
At Victory Recovery Partners, a network of addiction/recovery centers on Long Island, New York, we provide outpatient services to those suffering from addiction and substance use disorders. While there is not enough public information on Timberlake to necessarily make the determination that he has a substance use disorder, his situation and story should be examined (and more importantly, learned from) as it highlights something very important – the risks and dangers associated with driving while intoxicated. Timberlake was pulled over by police and was given several sobriety tests to determine if he was impaired. Unfortunately, Justin failed them all.
The statistics of driving while intoxicated are quite surprising. Did you know that drunk drivers cause more than 17,000 deaths annually? To put this in perspective, that is like having 310 funerals each week, or one death every 30 minutes. Specifically, in New York State, around 30% of fatal crashes are alcohol related. Additionally, on average there is an injury every 2 minutes due to drunk driving.
Victory Recovery Partners, a network of addiction/recovery centers on Long Island, provides outpatient services to those suffering from addiction and substance use disorders. By providing total care under one roof, consisting of behavioral health, medication-assisted treatment, psychiatric, and wellness services, we ensure that our motto of “No One Left Behind” holds true. At Victory, patients come first, and everything else follows. For more information on Victory, please visit our website.