Yass Valley Council has defended its clean-up operation of a truck crash involving 110,000 chicks after being accused of burying some of the chicks alive.

The truck crashed down an embankment Burley Griffin Way, towards Binalong, at about 1.20am on Easter Monday.

The council said that seven council staff “worked tirelessly throughout the night to assist with this accident, not leaving the site until 4pm the next day”.

“Working in the dark, it is believed that approximately 80,000 of the birds were saved and returned safely to their transport crates.

“The chicks were then loaded onto replacement trucks, to continue to Griffith,” the council said.

Vegan ACT said the clean up of the one-day-old chicks were “buried alive”.

Canberra woman Michelle Swann said she and fellow members of the Vegan ACT group arrived at the crash site at about 4pm on Monday to find more buried alive.

"As soon as we got there, you could hear chirping everywhere, so it was clear that there were still a lot of birds alive and injured," Ms Swann said.

“They were scattered over about a 100- or 200-metre area, and there was chirping coming from two piles of wreckage that the Yass council had bulldozed.”

Ms Swann said the council clean-up had finished by the time she arrived and that she didn't see a bulldozer, but there were heavy machinery tyre tracks.

Video purporting to be of the incident, posted by Vegan ACT on Facebook, shows people digging chicks out of the piles of debris by hand, with the sound of chirping audible.

Ms Swann said she and about 10 others rescued 140 chicks over about five hours, coming across hundreds more that had died. About 50 of the surviving chicks have since died from their injuries.

"We're completely disgusted by it. It was very traumatic," Ms Swann said.

Ms Swann said Vegan ACT hadn't contacted police or other authorities, but the group had been in contact with the ACT Animal Defenders Office and wanted further action to be taken.

Yass Valley Council said a small bobcat was used to clear debris from the side of the road, with council staff collecting chicks by hand while also controlling traffic.

Mayor Rowena Abbey said she was surprised by the allegations, and that if chicks were buried alive, the council crews would have been unaware.

"The reality is that they collected about 80,000 of the baby chickens," she said.

"It's my understanding that the council crews got there at 3am, and it was dark and there were baby chickens running around everywhere.

"As for the accusation that they've buried some chicks alive, I can't confirm or deny that, but there would certainly have been no intention to do that.

"They've picked up about 80,000 live chickens, which is a great result, and they've spent about 15 hours there, so why would they intentionally try to bury anything alive?"

The owner and manager of the chicken farm, from the Picton area, were also onsite due to the concern for their driver and birds.

They arranged for final clean up and re-fencing to be completed by contractors later in the week.

The council said it did not know where the owners took the deceased chicks.

A spokesperson from Local Land Services (LLS) said NSW Police contacted them after the incident.

“LLS was not required to attend the scene.

“Following complaints from the public, the company involved responded and returned to the site.

“LLS then inspected the site and were satisfied with the condition,” the spokesperson said.

The Tribune has also sought comments from management of the towing services that removed the truck that crashed.

NSW Police on Monday said the 30-year-old truck driver was taken to Yass Hospital with minor injuries following the crash.

Inspector Alison Brennan from Yass Police told the Tribune today that the investigation into the accident was still ongoing.

“We have certain processes to follow and are still awaiting to chat with him.

“That chat depends on a number of factors, including the fact that he’s not in the area,” Inspector Brennan said.

As for the cleanup operation, she said it was a matter for Yass Valley Council, the Department of Primary Industries and Local Land Services.

“Once we dealt with the public safety and any potential offences, we referred the matter onto the relevant authorities for site management and clean up,” she said.