In July 2016, a terrorist transformed Nice's waterfront road Promenade des Anglais into a place of horror when he drove a truck into a crowd of attendees of the July 14 Bastille Day fireworks. Now, a court case might help survivors of the attack deal with the pain.

Such as Patrick Prigent, a municipal police officer who was off duty that day.

Walking along the sunny seven-kilometer-long pedestrian strip recently, he recalled how he narrowly escaped the truck.

"I happened to be under a pergola right here, which was too low for the truck to drive through. Over there, there were a few palm trees which were also in the vehicle's way. And so I was somehow in a safe zone," the 60-year old told DW.

Prigent had come to the fireworks with a few friends who he lost sight of when the attack started. As he was following the truck's path to look for them, he took in the scale of the terror.

An 'unbearable' sight

"Everybody on my left had been killed. Some people were as flat as my two hands together. It was unbearable. My brain blanked out people's cries and the smell of blood. It put me into a protective bubble. Death had driven past me without seeing me," he said.

The perpetrator, a 31-year-old Tunisian national, killed 86 people that day. More than 400 were injured. He himself won't be on trial. The police shot him dead that night. Investigators believe he became radicalized without being in direct contact with the "Islamic State" terror group who claimed responsibility shortly after the attack.

Prigent and his friends escaped unharmed. Physically, that is. Once the shock had worn off, the police officer started to feel the psychological impact of what he had gone through. Since then, he's been in therapy.

"I first buried myself in work for a year until I reached a point where I couldn't go on. I was put on sick leave the following year and hardly left the house. At one stage, I drowned my sorrow in alcohol," he explained.

Prigent eventually got better. He has now, six years on from the attack, found a new balance in life and is working part-time. But his life will never be the same again, he says.

Prigent suffers from 'survivor syndrome'

"In my job as a municipal police officer, I can't go on patrol any more — all I can do is office work. The slightest sound, like a skateboarder behind me, makes me panic. I've become hypersensitive," he explained.

Like so many others who live through terror attacks or terrible accidents, Prigent has what's called "survivor syndrome."

"Since then, I've been wondering why I'm alive and not dead like the others. I feel guilty about it. That makes life a struggle."

"It's as if there were a snake inside me, which sometimes bites me and makes me cry," he added.

That suffering will take center stage during the four-month trial in Paris and will be transmitted live in a dedicated room in Nice. More than 800 civil plaintiffs — mostly survivors or family members of victims — will get the opportunity to explain their version of that day's events over the course of several weeks.

"It'll be an important moment for many victims," Antoine Megie, a political scientist at the University of Rouen in northern France, told DW.

He's part of a publicly-funded scientific project including 15 researchers that analyze France's so-called historical court cases, i.e. trials that have been filmed for the archives. These include cases of genocide, crimes against humanity but also terrorism events such as the trials on the Paris terror attacks in January and November 2015 and now the Nice trial, which will be the 15th court case filmed for French records. In January 2015, terrorists killed 17 people in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish supermarket and in the Montrouge suburb. In November that year, a terror commando massacred 130 people in assaults on a football stadium, restaurants and bars and the music venue Bataclan.

The trial stands as a symbol for democracy

"French terror court cases are showcases of the trauma that such attacks cause within our society — they are therefore highly political and emblematic," Megie explained. "The authorities [want to] underline that our justice system is democracy's response to barbaric terrorism," he added.

That doesn't mean the court will be particularly lenient. France has one of the world's toughest anti-terrorism legislation that has been further strengthened since 2015.

"And yet, anti-terror trials have so far managed to maintain a balance — the defense has had its share of speaking time and the sentences have been fair and impartial according to the standards of the European Court of Human Rights," Megie said.

Eight people — seven men and one woman — will now have to stand trial. Three of them are suspected of being part of a group that was actively preparing a terrorist attack and of being aware that the attacker adhered to violent jihad. Two of them could receive up to 20 years in prison, the third a life sentence. The other five accused, one of whom is still on the run, could face between five and 10 years behind bars for allegedly having helped prepare a crime and for the unlawful possession of arms.

Police officer Prigent is hoping for answers

Officer Prigent, who will also testify in court, will be closely watching the proceedings.

"I expect the judges to condemn these people, in a fair way, for what they've done," he said.

"But I also need the trial to provide me with some answers." One of the answers he's looking for is why the police are still unable to retrace the attacker's whereabouts for half an hour on the day of the attack. "All that will help me build my personal resilience," he explained.

The trial won't mark the end of Patrick's suffering — the dreadful memories of what happened that night will stay with him. But he's hoping the proceedings will mark the next step on the way to recovery.

Edited by: Rob Mudge