Exodus, who recently celebrated his second birthday, fell to his death Sunday afternoon after climbing onto a metal storage rack and falling over the railing of his mother's 14th-story apartment on University Avenue. He was pronounced dead at the scene in what police are calling a tragic accident.

The city medical examiner's office said yesterday that Exodus died of internal injuries related to the fall. Police said there was no finding of wrongdoing.

Exodus' nanny, Brandi Shanks, was making lunch in the kitchen of the two-story unit when the accident occurred at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

The youngster's death was the first caused by a fall from a high-rise involving a child age 4 or younger since March 1999, according to the state Department of Health's Injury Prevention Program.

Since 1991, seven children age 4 or younger have died after falling from high-rises in Hawai'i, state officials said. All seven deaths occurred on O'ahu — five downtown and one in 'Aiea.

"For lanais especially, it is important to make sure that kids can't climb up the railing," said Eric Tash, manager of the Injury Prevention Program.

Sunday's fatal fall was "terrible," Tash said, "and a lot of lanais are made fairly childproof, but if you leave things around, children are pretty resourceful, which is a real problem."

Tash said parents of small children who live in high-rises should make sure that there is no furniture on the lanai that a child could climb. He said if the balcony railing is picketed, the openings between the pickets should be no more than 2 1/2 inches apart, which is no wider than a small fist.

He said that parents should cover and lock windows within a toddler's reach with grilles or child-proof screens and that parents should always supervise children when they are on the lanai.

"Injuries are preventable," Tash said. "A lot of times, people are not aware of the steps they can take to protect their children."

The best way to make sure nothing happens, he said, is to lock the balcony door.

Lanais on residential high-rises are regulated by the city.

Eric Crispin, the city's director of planning and permitting, said the basic code states that picketed railings have to be spaced so that a 4-inch sphere cannot pass between them. Railings also must be at least 42 inches high, he said.

"We don't regulate furniture or equipment," said Crispin.

Yesterday, Vida Berger, Exodus' mother, said she has been gone for about a month, trying to earn money to pay off some of the debts she has incurred as a single mother.

The boy's father, Jason McLeod, 28, who works at a tattoo parlor, also looked after the boy in the evenings when he wasn't working, said McLeod's mother, Linda Kamakaokalani Orosco.

"I told them how many times to lock the sliding doors. Jason would tell the girl (Shanks) to keep things away from the balcony because one day Exodus would climb up on it. He's into everything at his age," said Orosco.

Orosco said her son is distraught, unable to believe his child is dead.