Good point. I was nearly hit by a delivery van in London for the same reason. Glad I couldn’t understand what the driver shouted.
It works the other way, too. I remember reading somewhere that Winston Churchill was hit by a car because he looked the wrong way as he started to cross a street. I think it happened in New York shortly after WWII, but I’m not certain, and I don’t have the book around.
I think the incident with Winston Churchill was in 1931 or thereabouts—definitely before WWII. George Will, I think it was, mentioned it in a column, reflecting on how different history might have been without Churchill as Prime Minister during WWII (if he had been killed).