Kansas Secretary of Transportation Deb Miller was understating it this week when she noted the state’s new seat-belt law fine is low. Realistically, it’s too low to encourage compliance.

The fine, after all, is $5 (and no court costs) — the cost of a cheap lunch. Under the new law, police can pull over drivers solely for failing to buckle up. Before this law, they needed another infraction and could tack on a seat-belt violation.

Now, that’s dandy, if the point of the law is to figure out an easy way to grab the $11.2 million incentive for such a law from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — which Kansas did on Tuesday. In these tough times, the state’s highway funding needs any boost it can get.

But just collecting federal money represents an abysmal failure since the point of the law is to encourage seat-belt use to reduce the instances of serious injury and death in accidents.

Experience shows seat-belt use increases when states have a law, with a steep fine, that they enforce. Miller is convinced that two out of three on that list means the law will have an effect.

Still, even when the fine doubles to $10 next summer, it will remain cheap to the point of being ineffective.

When handing over the big federal check, a federal transportation official said an effective seat-belt law in Kansas could save 25 lives a year, prevent 262 serious injuries and bump the number of Kansans wearing seat belts from 82 percent to more than 90 percent.

It would be a shame not to get the full safety benefits such a law can provide. The point of the fine is not to collect more cash, but to convince drivers seat belts must be a higher priority. When the Legislature returns in 2011, the fine should be raised.