Male drivers pay £289 more each year for their car insurance than women because they are more likely to be involved in motor accidents, a study has found.

Research by price comparison website moneysupermarket.com found that in 2008, the average annual motor insurance premium paid by men was £743; women paid £454.

The average 18-year-old male is charged £2,200 for an annual policy, but this falls to £997 by the time he reaches the age of 20 - if the driver is not involved in an accident.

Steve Sweeney, Head of Home and Motor Insurance at moneysupermarket.com, said: "It's clearly careless versus cautious as the motor insurance battle of the sexes lives on, and it is shocking to see the extent of the extra cost [£17,000] to a male driver for a lifetime of being behind the wheel."

He added that the Equality Bill, which came into force in April, has not stopped insurers from using age and sex as a factor in calculating premiums.

John Hesketh – consultant in RTA Department at Rowlands said “The brutal fact is that the leading cause of death for under 25-year-old males is a car crash, the leading cause of death for under 25-year-old females, is being a passenger in a car which is being driven by a male under the age of 25 years. The insurance companies are simply acknowledging that fact when they set their premiums in the way that they do. That is why you have insurance companies which will only ensure female drivers, statistically, they have far fewer accidents than men and when they do have them, they are less severe in nature. Generally speaking the male of the species is more willing to take a risk, the female is more risk averse.”

Last year the number of people killed and seriously injured in motor accidents fell to record lows of 2,538 and 269,029 respectively - but child deaths rose from 121 to 124, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.