It does work, though they don't stay off for long, maybe 5 or 10 mins before they strike again.
Also, It's a myth about the car-crash-cutting-the-power thing.
The white-light globes used are Mercury vapour, kicking the light shocks the vapour and it condenses back to a liquid. Kick the light out often enough and it kills the globe... it will glow an intense greenish-white colour and no amount of kicking will shut it off.....
LOL, used to kick them out a lot in my youth, with my head sometimes!
The orange-light globes are Sodium vapour... dunno if it works with these ones, never tried it.